Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Does it Get any More Real Than This?

If anyone doubts that shared online worlds like Second Life and the world we share here in Real Life are not blending, check out these two videos:

The Second Life video seems to pay more attention to traditional concepts associated with the ritual of a wedding (church, heterosexual, christian, vows, and so on) than the Real Life ritual does. Could it be that we will come in future years to preserve our traditions in high resolution immersive media, while in real life we live out our desires and identities according to our own particular preferences and beliefs? The holodeck of Startrack will come to be where we preserve our ideals in a sort of laboratory of "Truth" and the mission of the starship (our real bodies) is to find out who we are becoming rather than who we once perhaps were or could be......

"Virtual reality world Second Life has become a hub for pedophiles where users can have sex with child characters, authorities warn."

It is already an offence in most European countries to create a child character in an online world for sexual purposes as it comes under the classification of child pornography- It is only a matter of time before Australia catches up with the rest of the world. The next headline in Australian papers will be about how people are earning money in Second Life and not paying tax.

This is the blog of James Barrett . I am currently completing a PhD on space and narrative in digital literary reception and working as an instructional design consultant. I have published on narrative, pedagogy and practice in trans-cultural and digital media contexts, with focus on the concepts of reading, place, space and performance. I also research and participate in networks of digital art, virtual worlds, pedagogy that involves digital media and digital culture. There are tens of thousands of downloads of my music and sound art circulating. I have taught university courses on cultural studies, media literature, and narrative design in 2D and 3D media. My publications can be viewed here and the Twitter account is @JimBarrett